Understanding the Middle East

• Arabism, language, very important
• physical space and proximity also an issue
• How do you sort out/balkanize the region?

• No national consensus 
• resolution as getting rid of the british (why at first Nasser was liked) 
• different notions of what Islamic government would look like on the ground
• Oct. 1973 Sadat breached Israeli line (successful to get sinai back for egypt and peace treaty with Israel)

• most countries in middle east fairly "young" (creation after WW) (turkey--millet system) 
• 21st century study generated by state department on Iraq: pres/gov refused to listen; people thought Americans in Iraq meant more rights for Iraqi women 
• created KRG (own parliament --> quais independent identity; still part of Iraq)

• Arab spring 
• "hopeful" 
• once got rid of regime, replaced by authoritarian still
• persistance of authoritarianism ("deep state") in spite of popular uprisings 
• institutional and social issues
• France and Britain, using minority rule to keep majority under control

• ISIS created admin and state, unite Al Qaeda 
• Kurds --> sunni muslim; N. Iraq, w.Iran, N.E. Syria, E. Turkey... aspire national unity 
• Americans have armed kurds
• America couldve done more to promote democracy

• music bringing antagonistic groups together
• using music to recall specific memory 
• forms of identity exploration
• muslim conservatives highly suspicious often of it for capacity to lead away from religion
• call to prayers
• why would ISIS film destruction of Palmyra? clean break with everything pre-Islam; no connections (client state of Roman Empire///most famous ruler was women)
• Q'uran recited orally first; very complex/beautiful language for its time 
• parts ISIS def not Islamic, but parts are 
•       Islamic: vision restoring caliphate (islamic history) caliph on earth and together to welcome end of time "reign of justice" 
• discussion about whether suicide for Allah is acceptable 
• crossroads in physical sense trade routes etc land sits across major waterway routes
• very diverse geo, culturally, religiously, etc

phyisical sense trade routes.... means to the people outside become more aggressive and militarily capable; 

• religion used as reason why MENA not developing/industrializing like other places 
• (some Muslims believe it as not practicing Islam properly)

• via Muslim religion to make social 
• Muhammad Ibn Abl al-Wahhab
• religion: Islam was being neglected etc and needed to change to be "right path for salvation" 
• al Saud (political arm to spread his message) 
• Wahabbis: "purify" "re-connect" 
• 632-644 yr Rashidun, the rightly guided 
• Salaf al-Sahih 
• exaples of past does not eveolve 
• When Mohammed mentions "west" means GREEK thought, only find truth in revealed tests but Greek only through training/research/logic 
• no central gov, polytheistic patriarchal: time wehn Islam was created; attempts to overturn thesee, doesn't go into poli theory (types of gov etc) dynstic rule began with Umayyads

weather patterns tended to compartmentalize into small and often unconnected units: arid zones, steppelands, mountains, ergs and sahara, ruggedness of terrain even worse by earthquake/tectonic zones, mountains make communication difficult 

• scattered population; largely agricultural 
• why did the midde east, by the end 19th century, fall behind? "religion" "cultural" ....NO

• (marxism) 
• first found oil in Iran in 1908 (geostrategic) which adds to Euro interest in M.E (bordered sea routes) 
• business people begin to wonder if oil is elsewhere 
• resources and water = KEY to industrial development
• ME no domestic market for consumer goods, most pop raised enough agriculture just to survive the year 
• mostly artisanal (clay, rug, textile, ceramic, leather) 
• Tigris/Euphrates the exceptions (great river valleys) 
• On eve of WWI, oil in the ME was small amount or otherwise not know of

• exported raw materials in exchange produced materials 
• extraterritoriality (of ambassadors etc) extended to Christian minorities, many whicih gave no incentive to invest in gov 
• region @ great national disadvantage 
• assets: few minerals in few places 
• ~30 mil ppl entire region early; often at odds to local gov; often low level activity

plagues common until 1st quarter of 19th century: cholera, bubonic; neg impact on population; bad years, famine, also; warfare among people (casulties, dislocations) 

Social organization --> social weakness by kinship (tribe)

• who you support, who you marry, etc 
• pan Islam, pan arabism, etc all argued against these divides 
• your lineage determines who gets priority 
• when moved to cities took these kinships with them

every country middle easty unemployment records = double digits population responded to more centralized gov and new resources by growing  (now ~470 mil in ME) tech has helped not kept up with demographic capacity of the region to growth carry these people has not grown proportionately every ME country dependent on food imports

• most dominant issue in area 
• california strategy water (egypt/aswan dam, turkey adn attaturk dam etc)

• from Marxian background
• rural people (b/c impoverished can be easily radicalized) 
• poverty does NOT equal radicalization against gov
• Turkey 1920 peasant revolt; eventually fell away
• rural tends to be more focused on patriarchal/tribalism

• limited by quality of land, technology, investment, lack of water
• budgets in the middle east ...trained to be better agronomists etc
• the people who have lost out are the small
• peasants etc who cant invest 
• subsistance farmers still exist but becoming lass significant in annual accounts
• dates and olives all over middle east (use all aspects of palm tree) 
• flow from country/rural to the cities

• why interested in "rural sector" of ME
• human dimension 
• relationship between land users and land owners 
• "politically potent connections" 
• Marxian ideas of poss. rebellion from peasantry 
• constituents in teh city: in way Arab Spring was spotaneous outburst popular grass roots 
• youth in ME 15-30 years 
• Fellahin: Egyptian peasants 
• one of best organizing structures -> labor unions

• middle class political party
• the army becomes something of an economy within an economy
• effendiya (people went to cities and went higher status) 
• as interediary between upper and lower classes 
• attempt to get a working class mobilized politically (didnt work out) 
• in countries that were colonized, had emerged two economy society (subsidies from colonizer country) 
• colonial econ: all choice sectors
• agriculture oriented to needs of the mother country that controlled and not needs of the ME countries
• (wine in NOrth Africa)
• region under pressure by IMF and others to reduce subsidied

• cities in ME have been a reality since ancient times (babylonia, sumeria, etc) 
• city is a very old feature 
• economy primarily rural
• ability to connect with long distance trade (luxury items) -> cities would benefit from this if /when it existed
• Islam if its history, many ways urban
• arose in a city, (sanctuary town)
• people doing business etc
• Mohammmeds 1st wife ran trade business
• separation of madina qadima and Euro new medinas
• sanitation, presentation, traffic, water, planning etc all still issues all cities in ME
• urban fabric is very dense and after destroyed by war
• a cities' dynamics part of identity of society

• potential for political change 
• working class
• unemployment 
• rapid growth 
• congregate for business adn other 

• waqf -> businesses 
• messy businesses (slaughterhouse, tanneries, etc) eventually move outside cities 
• urban aparthied -> just built european city outside 

• wanted to incorporate modern amenities but needed to keep old artifacts 
• just built around them (parking garage beirut)
• tall buildings sitting on sand = limitations 
• "vision of modern future" -> concerns about your future adn cultural identity

SENCOP (for afghan milit ops) located in Doha Qatar

fill, city, etc mostly built by imported labor (living conditions poor for ..) 

ARAMCO -> private company -> got lot perks from US -> consortium maj. amer. oil companies

struck oil in 1933 in quantity no one could believe ARAMCO -> 99 year lease w/king abdul aziz -> seen as vital thing on american geo politics 

1/4 of worlds reserves under Saudi Arabia as far as we know 

• oil business becomes the industry in teh gulf 
• oil filled in where al other possibilities were falling away

• waterfall hard currency 
• yes, if massive development
• abd al rahman mounif -> novel "cities as salt" 
• while oil sounds good, doesnt create/help women in job market
• very high tech, doesnt' allow for develop of other economic sectors 
• these countries are just emerging as countries
• trucial states (used to UAE) -> each sheikh had a truce w/british who ran the affairs there 
• to contain wahhabism 
• take care foreign/military affairs while they took care of smuggling etc
• arabs in gulf as arabs have obligation to share teh wealth w/other countries
• egypt/syria/etc
• nationalist division of wealth for oil etc
• oil is mixed blessign; ideologically neutral by itsefl 
• the wealth itself can be used for "good" or bad"

flood human beings and stuff that comes with itelite ppl travel more, students went abroadbefore Iranian revolutions, students could come US and study whatever (after, we place restrictions) oil wealth generated lots of legacy beyond issue of banks, bank accountscan be expended in a way to create brand name cities (global, not compacted to culture i.e. dubai)art (photograph, ceramics, etc) ppl buy into that"enormous wealth" and "excruciating poverty"     ICA collection ME artpetroleum discovery bit of surprise happened on phenomenal scale least prepared to deal with it were countries that had it (fishing villages, story towns, etc) culturally and urban structure = big development workers who build buildings etc often from other countries, spawned industries, and etcafter gained independence, wanting to assert role/control over resources wanted to create national identitywhen colonizers left, left rulling elite essentially bilingual and only form gov knew was from colonizers

• demand/world market for petroleum was huge
• Aramco--Saudi Arabi"cant have credibility as a country if you cant control resources" idea, but weren't prepared for it so had to export 
• economic and nationlist reasons for wanting control
• petroleum is finite

• liquid in oil bearing shale, it expands, oil comes up
• challenge to price control (makeing people almost self sufficient) 
• attempt (by other countries) to predict stable flow

• never really got along well as a block
•  Iran, Algeira, Saudi Arabia, etc = conflict
• later was OAPEC (1973)
•  neither have been able to determine pricing or flow aid 
• oil market changed drastically (russia as competitor) -> OPEC still does what it can, but competition is enormous adn comes from all directions -> environmental concersn now (alt. energy resources?)
• many countries that had spectacular reserves etc. a few years ago now don't (spent them politically) 
• created funds from oil money to ... -> useful 
• revenues made possibility of supporting extremism, conservatism through funding
• schools etc as much as ppl are doing (helping schools etc) but never enough
•  as far as he knows, crime is fairly low in ME compared to here
• poverty in teh city -> bidonville/gecikondo

• oil appears in only some places (funding for development is mixed and varied)
•  informal economy very much handled by women (sell petty goods, doing howewrok, children selling pens, etc for cahs)
•  distribution of oil wealth = uneven gab between haves adn have nots getting larger

• they're "renting" a resource (being managed by gov selling to foreigners adn collects revenue) 
• many of these countries are single-resource exporters so don't raise taxes etc;
• gov = main distribution for revenuerentier states -> short circuits the development of political structures where citizens would have to pay taxes
• State owns banks, schools, railroads, etclarge public sector -> gov big employer 
• short term have to brrow $$$ for this 
• then leads to Washington Consensus (burden to ME economies)
•  Egypt in constant tussle w/IMF about Washington consensus

• politics shows social innovations of the times
• popular (much sought after, or trend)
•  genereated by the people (as opposed to the elite) 

• the middle east has been for centuries a culture that values the word 
• languages of the elite: most until 19th century were illiterate (emphasis on orality)
•  "reciters" would "jazz it up" to make more engaging

• about entertainment and information
•  "whats the japanese secret? how'd they do it?" and botany and darwinism, and mining and first encyclopedias, etc 
• islamist press too: al manar (salafi, in Cairo)
• modernization from above also grew teh book industry (needed manuals, etc) = bulaq (press) 
• no one made living in teh ME w/o publishing works serially newspapers or magazines
• poets saw works turned into songs (result of newspapers) began to print classics

creation psychology etc; North African writer 

• 1920s spread of word by radio 
• TV like radio mostly owned and determined by the state 
• BBC world service won out others for Arab countries
• Widens scope of what they can get accesss to
•  tech helped raise pop culture that was latent
•  folklore considere popular culture 
• popular classes saw effendiya as seudo european aka peasants, workers, etc

• explicity against 
• music as way to combat ideological positions (sufi/shi)
• Andalusian music -> andalusian spain -> proving people at different sects can live together peacefully 
• Salafis thinks music movest he heart in ways counterproductive 
• Wazzans criticized for how they call people to prayer (can be "too" musical) 
• music is a bridge between cultures and musicians

• Islam is religion, when it burst on scene, overthrowing more powerful forces of Persia/Byzantia, 634-660, Arab political control extended over much of Middle East (has always existed adn thrived on people of other religions/culture) 
• yr 1000 when ppl professed Islam (10th/11th century) 
• in need of institutional building to maintain growth 
• Islam: diverse language, tolerant of other religions 
• Ahl al Dhimma -> people of the pact, recognize their political power adn get to keep our religion/education in return 
• Dome of the rock: Jerusalem, joing of culture? greek building style 
• caligraphy -> religious/decorative purposes (of around dome rock) 
• Early Muslims had no choice but to absorb large amounts of other culture/things etc 
• Christian doctrine did not accept Islam as a legitimate religion
• Islam: Gods "one-ness" (accept Christ as prophet not a god) 
• Arabs/Isl. borrowed considerably from Greeks (how to argue, etc) 
• secular claims to truth vs religious claims trught 
• Islam does not have church, no canonical body 
• where do Muslims look to when misunderstanding in teh Quran? 
• no mandate in Quran for women to wear hijab
• "sword verses" by westerners b/c seems to imply violence by non Muslims, however 
• Islam gave rules to divorce, women's rights, etc when before that period had not had

• Milestons, 1960s 
• Jahilyya; considered most regimes of the time un-Islamic 
• Egypt cracked down on Brotherhood -> Saudi Arabia welcomed them/ b/c not a fan of Nasser
• Bin Laden, Al Qaeda: near enemy, far enemy; willing to attack other Muslims

• Books: Quran = guidance for how to solve problems 
• Hadith = if couldn't find guidance in Quran, turned to habits/sayings/doings of prophet (compiled in books) 

Duties/Pillars of Islam: 1) salat 2) saum (fasting) 3) Hajj 4) Zakat (alms) 5) Shahada

• 1) Social action 
• 2) reinterpretation (new ijtihad) 
• 3) fundamentalist quietism (salafiyya) 
• 4) political participation (elections) 
• 5) Extremism -> al qaeda, Islamic jihad, ISIS

• Sharia /fiqh (urf /kanun) sufism, shiism
• Sharia (for fundamentalists consult Quran/Hadith) criminal cases (capital punishment) = purview of the state 
• leave out exceptions/details of Quran, for like why (only in limited circumstances) 
• set of principles, not codes is how sharia see 
• effective legal sys largely ceased to be so except limi. areas (family law) 
• models they borrowed mostly from Europe
• slow democratization (Sharia more state involv?) fikh = bodies of law 
• Islam recognize and protects the autonomy of the poeple of the book (Christians/jews/ law/books etc) 
• fitha = admin law (compiled in books Kanun) 
• many people bought "barat" (diplomatic immunity) 
• significantly impacted the economy of country 
• what it is is not al that clear, so restoring sharia difficult 
• similar to creating defined/reflected Islamic society 
• sufism -> another form of Islamic activism

• dont find orthopraxy enough 
• communitication w/the divine/God 
• many believe material comfort is what separates them 
• "individual quest" goal to be " next to God" 
• centers of big communities

• 1) Iraqi politics 
•      sectarianism 
•      gov. for very long time privliged Sunnis 
•      Dissolving Ba'ath party (largely Sunni) 
• these were major removal of power by Sunni
• Absu Mosaib al Zarqawi ("thug" from Jordan) 
• Al Qaeda in Iraq - 2003
• Daesh not willing to work with in the system of gov -> need caliphate 
• caliphate -> revival (econ, social, etc) 
• Mahdi (mossiah) 

• Background: Ottoman privileged Sunnis; British sponsored Arab revolt 1916-1919
• Faisal sets up in Damascus 
• French not pleased (invaded and threw Faisal out) 
• Sistani (helped out americans issuing fatwa in 2003  to not take up Jihad .... Am. Fre eelctions instead) 
• Kurds exist 4 places: syria, turkey, Iran, Iraq 
• Iraqi army thrown out, jobs large part of Daesh (prisoners, Ba'athist too)

• treated different ways in diff countries
• very politicized -> women bear disproportionate burden 
• how one stands on issue colonialism/westernization
• tricky situation for natinoals
• tend to equate mondernity w/westernization
• extraordinary symbolic burden
• religios/socialogical
• patriarchal social relation (pre-dates Islam)

• determined by socioevonomic conditions 
• authoritarian/administration
• more advanced forms education today
• unemployment high for everyone 
• legal reform: maodawana ; inheritance; family dispute; met this problem by migrating; training people these days difficult 
• what will be in deman 
• politcal: repressive regimes 
• equal opp. "abusers"